Kira Honten — Restaurant in Saga

I am writing to express my disappointment and frustration regarding my recent attempt to make a reservation at your restaurant. As a Singaporean traveler planning to visit Kyushu, I was keen to dine at your restaurant and had asked my Japanese friend to assist with the telephone reservation.

Unfortunately, I was dismayed to learn that my friend's initial reservation was rejected, with the explanation that your restaurant does not accept reservations from foreigners due to concerns about no-shows. I found this reason to be discriminatory and unacceptable.

In an effort to secure a reservation, my friend offered to provide my credit card details to guarantee the booking. However, the reservation was again rejected, which left me disappointed.

Upon further research, I discovered numerous negative reviews criticizing your restaurant's service. I am now questioning the quality of your restaurant and wondering what, if anything, makes it worthy of recommendation.

I hope that you will take my feedback seriously and reconsider your reservation policies to ensure that all customers, regardless of nationality, are treated with respect...

My friends and I are coming from Malaysia, and after a long day of driving, we were originally planning to visit somewhere nearby for dinner but it was closed, so we randomly found this place and just decided to dine here on a whim.

Since we walked in without reservation and it was dinner time, we waited in the waiting room for about 20 minutes. The waiting room offered TV shows and books, all in Japanese, though.

The service was wonderful, I had a lot of questions regarding the ingredients and the staff patiently answered and clarified my doubts, and managed to learn a lot! Atmosphere-wise, it does give out a feeling that it's expensive (and it is). It's a Michelin-starred restaurant, after all. And we only found out afterwards.

The beef was delicious, we didn't actually manage to finish the vegetables offered, but there were tea refills as well as rice refills upon request so we're super full with happy tummies.

The time we visited Saga was beautiful autumn so we also had an amazing time. Overall it's been a pleasant experience. Though if you're here solely to compare prices then it is on...

Dined in and ordered the 9800yen Saga beef shabu shabu set for two. Total 19600 + 400 yen for orange juice.

Cannot help but compare this to Kisoji in Tokyo/Kanto that we sometimes visit.

Personally, I would say Kisoji is significantly better in all dimensions. Food quality, service and ambience.

The only thing that is good here in my opinion is that you can choose Saga beef which we did and it does taste good. (Kisoji beef also taste great, btw)

Other than that, the service is just okay. We had to clear our soup of scum ourselves whereas Kisoji would do it for us.

The atmosphere is just like a standard restaurant.

The general food quality is also not great (except the beef). Disappointed with the sesame sauce too.

Think it is just so so overall at least for Shabu Shabu. Might come back for YakiShabu as wife loves...